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Coldplay Hides Lyrics in Ghost Story Books in Libraries Across the Globe

As the lifelong library lover and lyrics-obsessed music fan I am, I officially declare this my favorite album promo of the year.

In order to promote their upcoming album “Ghost Stories,” Coldplay has hidden lyric sheets, written in lead singer Chris Martin’s handwriting, inside ghost story books in libraries around the world.

Nine sheets of lyrics (one for each song on the album) were hidden, and the band has been tweeting clues. So far, eight of the nine sheets have been found in locales as wide-ranging as Mexico, Singapore, Finland, Spain, England, New Zealand, Ireland and the U.S. As each one has been discovered, the details of the finds and photos of the lyrics sheets have been posted to the band’s website, Coldplay.com.

I was particularly excited to learn that the 7th sheet of lyrics, for song “A Sky Full of Stars,” was discovered in a copy of Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of House,” one of my all-time favorite books. Meanwhile, the envelope containing the lyrics for “True Love,” which was found in a Barcelona library, also contained a “golden ticket” good for a trip for two to see Coldplay perform in London.

A stunt that gets people to enter a library, wander the wondrous stacks, and crack a real, cover-and-binding book is a stunt I can get behind. There’s still one sheet left to find, and the most recent clue points to South Africa.